Presidency begins vetting of 2018 Budget details.

The Presidency has commenced the vetting of the details of the 2018 Budget bill passed as the National Assembly.

The lawmakers passed a budget of N9,120,334,988,225 for the current fiscal year, more than six months after it was presented to them by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The President submitted a proposal of N8.6trillion to the National Assembly.

But it was learnt that there was one issue surrounding the budget which had not been resolved by the two arms of government.

Although the Presidency reluctantly accepted the National Assembly’s proposal to increase the budget benchmark from $45 per barrel to $51, there was no consensus on what to do with the excess cash.

While the National Assembly wanted the $6 increase to go into expenditure, the Presidency proposed that it should be used to reduce budget deficit.

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang, said: “The next step is that the bill will undergo standard presidential operational procedure.

This is coming more than six months after President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget at a joint session of the National Assembly on November 7, 2017.